Final Round of London Resort Consultations Pushed Back

Final Round of London Resort Consultations Pushed Back

London Resort Company Holdings, the company behind the proposed London Resort development on the Swanscombe Peninsular in Kent, have today announced a new date for the fifth and final round of public consultations for the project.

In an announcement on the project website, LRCH confirmed that this final round of consultations will now take place in ‘early 2018’, despite having previously said that these would happen later this year (2017). As a result, the submission of the Development Consent Order has now been pushed back to ‘Spring 2018’ with a revised opening date of 2023 – a date which signifies a further 12 month delay for the development. Speaking about the final round of public consultation, Humphrey Percy, CEO of LRHC said:

“This final round of consultation will be a crucial step towards completing our plans for the world class entertainment resort. We have subjected our project to considerable rigour in recent months, transformed it, and in turn are creating an inspirational and deliverable scheme. We are encouraged that industry experts have fully endorsed our decision to pursue a multi-IP, two gate strategy.

“We are delighted with progress on partnership agreements. We plan to build over 3,500 hotel rooms, operated by our new partner, Intercontinental Hotel Group; constructing the majority of the Resort and new roads and infrastructure with materials stored at and transported from Port of Tilbury, with whom we have recently signed an agreement. We are now in very detailed commercial negotiations regarding partners, the concepts they are embracing and some of the incredible creative propositions.

“We are encouraged and supported by our local authority partners to take the time to get this right; we have listened to our stakeholders and will now be consulting the public early in 2018 and submitting the Development Consent Order application in Spring of 2018. Our grand opening date is planned for 2023.

“The London Resort is a first for the UK. Not just because we are the first Business and Commercial Nationally Significant Infrastructure project, but more than that, together we are creating a Global Entertainment Resort without parallel in this country, propelling us into the top ten theme park resorts in the world. We are combining an investment of £3.2bn, just 17 minutes from the top tourist City destination in the world, alongside globally recognised brands, stories and characters from the world of television, film, books and games.”

This latest announcement will be seen by many as a further blow for the London Resort Project, which just last month announced that the partnership with Paramount Pictures had been discontinued, with LRCH exploring new options for potential partners to feature as a part of the Resort alongside BBC Worldwide, and Aardman Animations.

The London Resort Project has faced a series of delays with the fifth round of public consultation originally planned for early 2016. Under the original schedule, the £3.5 billion project had been set to open in 2019, however a series of delays and setbacks have meant that this date has been moved back on a number of occasions with the current scheduled opening now expected to be in 2023, four years later than initially hoped.

What are your views on this latest delay to the project? Make sure you have your say over on the TowersTimes and SouthParks Forum. We’ll be sure to bring you all the latest London Resort developments as they happen.

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